Happy 72nd Birthday to Alex Van Halen!

7 things you may not know about Alex Van Halen

Originally, he was supposed to be the guitar player.

It was Alex who was taking guitar lessons, while Eddie bashed away at a drum kit he purchased with money from his paper route.

His Dutch father was a very talented jazz musician.

Alex was born in Holland in 1953 and didn’t move to the United States until 1962. His father, Jan, was a jazz saxophonist and clarinet player who made sure both his sons were classically trained on the piano.

He used to go pretty crazy backstage as well...

Sammy Hagar mentioned this in his book My Uncensored Life in Rock’ describing the copious amounts of beer Alex used to drink both in the road and the studio.

Which might explain the neck brace he wore on tour

After reportedly rupturing three vertebrae in his neck, Alex spent much of 1995’s ‘Balance’ tour -- dubbed the ‘Ambulance Tour’ by his brother - wearing a gigantic neck brace. You know, the kind you’d wear if you wanted to claim whiplash if your car got hit by a rich person. None of which explains his sinister fu manchu mustache.

He’s now an ordained “man of the cloth.”

Alex quit pretty much cold turkey back in 1987. Now he’s an ordained minister.

He’s amazingly loyal to his family, having never shown up on record away from his brother.

Eddie’s famously played on records by Michael Jackson, Brian May from Queen and a few other of his friends, but the only time Alex ever appeared on a non-Van Halen record was to play keyboards on the ‘Twister’ soundtrack song ‘Respect the Wind.’ Which was by who? Alex and Eddie Van Halen.

The Rock and Paul Riser used to live in Alex Van Halen’s house.

Alex Van Halen built at 20,000 sq ft house in the Beverly Estates, the most exclusive neighborhood in LA. His neighbors were Mark Wahlberg (that big house), Denzel, Rod Stewart and Sly Stallone. Alex later sold the house to Paul Reiser who then sold it to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, so all 3 men have used the same commode.